Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has said that his pro-farmer government has always come to the aid of farmers in distress.
Soon after crediting YSR Crop Insurance amount to the accounts of farmers with a click of button at his camp office on Tuesday, Mr. Jagan said the insurance covered 50 lakh farmers and one crore acres of farmland for the year 2019.
Stating that it was a record of sorts that the crop insurance for crop damages was being paid within months of natural disasters, the Chief Minister said that ₹1,252 crore had been credited to the accounts of 9.48 lakh farmers.
“A sense of anguish and pain overwhelmed me after I saw the plight of farmers . Why have the farmers shied away from taking insurance? What is the credibility of insurance companies. We then decided that the government should pay the premium of insurance policies and now, we are crediting the insurance premium directly into the accounts of farmers,” Mr. Jagan said.
Reminding that he had given a word during Collectors’ conference held on December 15 last year that crop insurance premium would be directly credited into the accounts of farmers, Mr. Jagan said that farmers could now look forward for quicker disposal of their insurance claims, as the State government was actively engaging insurance firms and the Centre.
“Earlier, insurance premium used to be paid in three phases by farmers to the State government, Central government and there was no one to follow it up. We know that crop insurance for the year 2012 had not been credited to the accounts of farmers even now. This year we paid ₹971 crore, including ₹503 crore as the share of State government, to the companies,’’ the Chief Minister said.
He said that it was unfortunate that not even 20 lakh farmers were covered under crop insurance till the year 2019, as many of them did not have trust on insurance firms. But now, the State government was paying insurance premium for 49.80 lakh farmers covering 45.96 lakh hectares. Further, farmers were able to avail themselves of the services from Rythu Bharosa Kendras.
Input subsidies would also be paid to those who suffered crop damages in the recent cyclones, on December 31, he said.
Minister for Agriculture K. Kanna Babu, Minister for BC Welfare Ch. Venugopala Krishna, AP Agrimission Vice-Chairman M.V.S. Nagireddy and Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah were present.
